USA > Maine > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the state of Maine > Part 11
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Resuming work at his trade, he became con- nected as compositor with the Mercantile Jour- nal (now the Boston Journal), and in 1837 was sent to Maine to get the returns of the election of that year for the Boston dailies, this being his first visit to the Pine Tree State. Landing in Gardiner, he went thence to Augusta, where he remained a few days, or until after the elec- tion. It was not until five days later that the returns were printed in Boston, but that achieve-
ment was then considered a quick piece of jour- nalistic work. Subsequently, in Boston, Mr. Homan met Luther Severance, of the Kennebec Journal, who engaged him to go to work on that paper as a compositor. At that time steam communication extended only as far as Ports- mouth, from which place he had to take the stage to Augusta.
Mr. Homan remained with the Kennebec Journal during the winter of 1837-38, and in the fall of 1838 became a compositor on the Age, the Democratie paper in Augusta. The year 1840 was the year of his marriage to Susan Sewall, who was a daughter of Charles and Sophia (Gill) Sewall, of Augusta. Her grand- father, General Henry Sewall, of Augusta, was an officer of the American army in the Revolu- tionary War.
In 1842 Mr. Homan went to Bangor to work on the Bangor Whig and Courier, and in Octo- ber of 1843 became connected with Mr. J. S. Manley, father of the Hon. J. H. Manley, in the publication of the Gospel Banner, an enter- prise which proved very successful. They con- tinued it together from 1843 to 1858, when they sold the Banner, and purchased the Maine Farmer. In 1860 Mr. Homan bought Mr. Manley's interest in the latter paper, and, tak- ing another partner, conducted it until 1875. In that year he sold his own interest in it to Mr. J. H. Manley, the son of his former partner. and since then has lived retired from active business life. For the last forty years he has resided in the house that is situated next door to the old Blaine mansion, he and Mr. Blaine having purchased their residenees at the same time. Thus for a number of years he was Mr. Blaine's close neighbor, and was well acquainted with the great statesman.
Mr. Homan was one of the original members of Sabattus Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Augusta, and continued as a member until the lodge went out of existence, when he dropped out of. the order. He belongs to the Universalist church. which he joined soon after coming to Augusta. and which he has served as chairman of the building committee and in other official capae- ities. Of his three children all died before reaching maturity. With his beloved wife. the companion of more than sixty years of earthly
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joys and sorrows, he awaits "the inevitable hour" with a serene confidence, strengthened and sweetened by that loving companionship, as expressed by him in the following verses, written on the occasion of his wiglity-sixth birthday : --
MY BIRTHDAY. 1816-JANUARY 12-1902
To-day the long, swift years in flight Have borne me, on their winged way, From the far hilltops of delight To where their sunset shadows play.
Morning and evening! and. between, What of the good, the grief, these years In mingling measure may have seen -
The stress, the sweetness, and the tears ?
They have been mine - the common lot - Of all I have and am a part: Life will not be where they are not, These garnered treasures of the heart.
And mine - no human joy above - The faithful friendships that are given, With their blest ministries of love, To bring earth nearer unto heaven.
Sweetest of all sweet gifts, to be My strength and blessing, is the one Who keeps Love's lifetime tryst with me: "I " tread the wine-press " not alone.
Her hand in mine, with closing day, And shadows veil all earthly sight, Our love, our trust, will know the way, For " in the evening shall be light."
ON. STEPHEN ALBERT NYE, presi- dent of the S. A. Nye Manufacturing Company, of Fairfield, may be set down as one of the most enterpris- ing and best known citizens of Somerset County. The town of Fairfield, where he resides, was his birthplace, and also that of his father, Stephen Nye, his paternal grand- father, Bartlett Nye, having removed thither from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Benjamin' Nye, the immigrant progenitor of this branch of the Nye family in New Eng- land, was one of the carly settlers of Sand- wich, Mass., going . there from Lynn within four years after the grant of the land, in April, 1637, to "ten men of Saugus." He married
in 1640 Katherine Tupper, daughter of Thon.as Tupper, one of the ten grantees in 1637. A Stephen Nye was Representative to the Great and General Court of Massachusetts from Sandwich in 1761, and his son Elisha, born in 1745, was Representative from Fairfiel.I. Somerset County, District of Maine, in 1517.
Bartlett Nye, above named, grandfather of Stephen A., was a member of the lower branch of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1812. Stephen Nye, son of Bartlett. was & farmer and lumberman and a well-known citizen of Fairfield in his day, serving as Re :- presentative in the Maine Legislature in 1561. and for a number of years as Deputy Sherif of Somerset County. He died in 1875. He married Eleanor M. MeKachnie.
Stephen Albert Nye, born in 1835, son of Stephen and Eleanor, was educated in the public schools of Fairfield, which he attended regularly between the ages of four and fifteen. In his sixteenth year he set forth to see some- thing of the world and incidentally to seek his fortune, joining a party of gold hunters and going to California via Nicaragua. Dur- ing his stay of about four years on the Pacific Coast he had some experience in mining. Returning by the Panama route in 1559. he engaged for a short time in the wholesale flour business at Fairfield with his brother. J. H. Nye, under the firm name of J. H. Nye & Co. In Clinton, Me., whither he removed in 1860, he carried on a combined mercantile and lumber business for several years. For the past thirty years and more he has been prominently identified. with the lumber indus- try of Fairfield. The firm of Nye, Food & Co., of which he was the senior member, was dissolved in 1872. After that he was alone in business till 1SS2, when he admitted F. B. Purinton as a partner, the firm name being S. A. Nye & Co. In 1892, when the S. A. Nye Manufacturing Company was incorpo- rated, Mr. Nye became its president. Mr. Purinton its treasurer. Of this company of- furniture manufacturers and woodworkers Mr. Nye is the founder and promoter.
A man of large business capacity, Mr. Nye has other interests besides this. For a num- ber of years he has been one of the syndicate
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which has constructed various electric rail- roads in the State of Maine. He is now a director of the Portland & Brunswick Elec- tric Railroad Company, of which he was a promoter, is also a director of several other electric railway companies and of the Water- ville Trust Company, of Waterville, Me. He is the president of the George S. Ricker Com- pany, manufacturers of lumber, whose mills are at Pishon's Ferry, seven miles north of Fairfield; and he is one of the Board of Trus- tees of the Kennebec Water District.
Mr. Nye is an attendant of the Baptist church. In politics he is a stanch Republi- can. He served in the Maine Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives in 1SS2 and as a Senator in 18S4. He is a member of Siloam Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Fairfield, and has held all the important offices therein; is also a Chapter Mason and a Knight Templar.
He married November 10, 1860, Hannah J. Cleveland, daughter of Luther and Eliza (Wheeler) Cleveland and a descendant in the seventh generation of Moses Cleveland, of Woburn, Mass., the founder of the family in New England. Mrs. Nye died April 18, 1900, leaving one child, a daughter, Lida W. She was educated in Portland, and is now living at home with her father in Fairfield.
ILLIAM PATCH DICKEY is well known as one of the leading mer- chants of Bangor, having been en- gaged in the hardware trade in that city up- ward of forty years. Born in Bangor, April 22, 183S, son of George and Lucy L. (Patch) Dickey, he is of the fifth generation of the family founded by William Dickey, who with his family came to this country from the north of Ireland before 1730.
Elias2 Dickey, younger son of William,1 mar- ried in 1743 Rosanna McDonald (sometimes "McDaniel" on the records), and resided in Londonderry, N.H. He was a large land-owner and a man of great energy. He carried' on business as a dealer in general merchandise, teaming his goods from Boston. He died in 1755, at the age of thirty-seven. His widow
survived him many years, making her home in the town that is now Brookline, N.H.
James Dickey3, one of his four children, born in Londonderry, N.H., fought in the Revo- lution. He was ensign in Captain Reuben Davis's Company that marched from Hollis on the alarm of April 19, 1775, and was "in the service till 1779, at least, and probably through the war" (Dickey Genealogy). He married Mary Davidson, of Windham, N.H., daughter of George2 Davidson (William1), and removed to Northport, Me. Ile died April 22, 1831. His wife lived to be nearly seventy-five years of age. They had thirteen children, the eldest born 1778, the youngest in 1802. They were William, James, George, Robert, Mary, David, Thomas, John, Nancy, Darius, Susan, George (second), and Eliza.
George+ Dickey, born in Northport, August 11, 1800, was the twelfth child of his parents. He grew to manhood in Northport, obtained his education in the public schools, and without serving an apprenticeship learned or picked up the carpenter's trade. Skilled in the use of tools and competent to direct his own work, he used to buy old houses and put them in good repair or make them over. Thus, when yet a young man, he was a master- builder. Removing to Bangor in 1834, he continued in the business of contracting and building until his retirement from life's activi- ties. Honest and upright, he was financially successful. Always a member of the Methodist church, but in his later years he attended the Congregational church. In politics he was a Whig. He died April 13, 1886. His wife, Lucy L. Patch, whom he married March 14, 1832, died March 22, 1896.
She was born in Knox, Me., December 2, 1806, daughter of David and Sally (Rea) Patch. Her mother was a daughter of Ben- jamin and Lydia (Putnam) Rea. Jolin Rea was a Revolutionary soldier: John Rea, private, in Captain John Putnam's Company which went from Danvers on the alarm of April 19, 1775; John Rea, of Topsfield, in Captain Robert Dodge's Company, November, 1776, service two days; John Rea, town not given, in Cap- tain Dodge's Wenham Company, November, 1777, to February, 1778, and also February,
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1778, to April, 1778; John Rea, in Captain Stephen Perkins's Topsfield Company, Colonel Cogswell's Regiment, September, 1776, to No- vember, 1776, town not given. Roll dated North Castle. (Massachusetts Archives.)
George and Lucy L. Dickey had five chil- dren, namely: Lucy Jane, born in Northport, Me., February 18, 1833; George Augustus, born December 18, 1835; William Patch, born April 22, 1838; Annie, born August 29, 1840; and Amelia Ellen, born April 19, 1843-Ban- gor being the birthplace of all but the eldest. Lucy Jane Dickey married the Rev. John Haskell, a Congregational minister, and died in 1872, leaving no children.
George Augustus Dickey is a clerk in the dry- goods store of Chandler & Co., Boston. He mar- ried Celia C. Black, of Ellsworth, Me., and has two children, Charles Black and Eva Augusta. Charles Black Dickey is now the Maine agent of Dun's Mercantile Agency in Portland.
Annie Dickey was the wife of Humphrey A. Bridges, of Bangor, and the mother of two children, Mabel Snow and Marion Willis. She died several years since. Mabel Snow Bridges married Horace Southworth Frazer, an architect of Boston, and has three children: Eleanor; Marion Bridges; and Horace Southworth Frazer, Jr.
Amelia Ellen Dickey married James H. Snow, of Lisbon, Conn. They have two chil- dren: William Humphrey, born in Lisbon, Conn., February 14, 1873; and Donald Fran- cis, born in Bangor, Me., September 6, 1877. William Humphrey Snow is superintendent of three railroads in Bangor. He married Marion Rafter, of Johnsonville, N.Y ..: he has no children. Donald Francis Snow, a graduate of Bowdoin College, class of 1901, is now study- ing law in Maine State University.
William Patch Dickey was the third child and second son in his father's family. He grew to manhood in his native place, was educated in the public schools, and before he was twenty-one obtained sufficient knowl- edge of business methods and of certain classes of merchandise, manufactured articles of metals in particular, to warrant him at that age, in 1859, in establishing himself in company with O. P. Sawtelle as a dealer in hardware. The
firm continued in trade about three years, occupying the first brick building ever built in Bangor. In 1862 Mr. Dickey sold out his interest to Foss & Dickey. In 1863 Mr. Diekey resumed business at the old stand, at first without any associate, but soon taking in his uncle, O. R. Patch, of New York City, as silent partner, the firm name being W. P. Dickey & Co. Mr. Patch retired in 1868, and Mr. Diekey has been alone in business ever since. Needless to say, he has given his per- sonal attention to its management, and has prospered through his own diligence. Re- publican in politics, he has served on the city government of Bangor two years, and is now one of the three Park Commissioners. He is also a member of the Cemetery Board. As a Mason, he is a member of Saint Andrew's Lodge and of Saint John Commandery, both of Ban- gor.
Mr. Dickey married May 15, 1862, Eliza Foss, of Bangor, daughter of Joseph B. Foss. She was born March 11, 1839. Mr. and Mrs. Dickey have three children now living, namely : Willis Foss, born April 15, 1863; Fred Howard, born May 7, 1865; and Virginia Louise, born March 15, 1868. Their youngest child, Carlos Dickey, born March 22, 1870, died May 27, 1876. Virginia Louise Dickey is the wife of Samuel Larrabee Strickland, of Bangor.
ON. JOSHUA GRAY, formerly Mayor of Gardiner, State Senator, and one of the leading representatives of the lumber industry of Maine, was a native of the State, having been born and reared in the town of Stark, Somerset County. His parents were Captain George and Mar- garet (Dinsmore) Gray, his father being a son of George Gray, who came to Maine from England, settling in Stark. Captain George Gray served in the United States army in. the War of 1812.
Joshua Gray was educated in the public schools of Stark. In 1844, at the age of thirty, he came to Gardiner, and found employment as clerk for a lumber firm, with whom he ro- mained for two years or more, acquiring a knowledge of the business. He then began
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his independent business career by purchas- ing an interest in a saw-mill, thus becoming directly connected with the great lumber in- dustry of which he was in later years a con- spicuous representative. He also purchased an interest in what was at first an oakum- mill, then a starch-mill, and later was con- verted by Frost & Sargent into 'a shingle and clapboard mill. Frost & Gray continued this line of work for several years, when John Frost sold his interest to Townsend. Sub- sequently Gray & Townsend lost the mill by fire. About the same time the firm of J. Gray & Co., composed of Joshua Gray, John Frost, and B. T. Dinsmore, leased on the river road, below the railroad, a steam-mill, which also was burned after being operated for several years. Previous to the Civil War, Gray & Dinsmore bought of Clay & Co. what is now Gray's mill. Several years later Mr. Gray bought his partner's interest. In 1870 he likewise bought dam No. 2 for twenty-two thousand dollars, and immediately rebuilt and enlarged the mill. In 1876 he made his son George a partner in the business, under the firm name of Joshua Gray & Son. Later, on the admission to the firm of his other son, Charles H., its style was changed to Joshua Gray & Sons, and has thus remained to the present time. This firm soon became one of the most prominent and successful in the lumber industry of the State, entting over five million feet of lumber per year, and giv- ing employment to a large force of workmen. The timber cut in the dense Maine woods was floated down the Kennebec River to the Gardi- ner mills, where it was turned into the mam- factured product. Mr. Joshua Gray was one of the pioneers in the Maine lumber industry as now conducted. A man of sound, clear judgment and unquestioned integrity, and, withal, a hard worker, he enjoyed to the full- est extent the confidence of his fellow-citi- zens and of the business community in general.
In 1867 he was elected a member of the City Council of Gardiner. In 1868 he was elected Alderman. At a later period, for sev- eral years, he served as Mayor of Gardiner. Twice he was chosen to the Maine State Sen- ate, serving in the sessions of 1869 and 1870.
He was an original director of the Oakland Bank, and was its president for several years. He was also for several years a director of the Kennebec Log Driving Association and for a portion of the time its president. He served as president of the Oakland Manu- facturing Company of Gardiner from the date of its organization up to the time of his death. which took place February 14, 1901. when he was in his eighty-seventh year. Gardi- ner has had few more popular citizens, and none could be more worthy of the respect and esteem in which he was universally helt. He was known as a pillar of strength in the Republican party. Though not a member. he attended the Universalist church, and he contributed largely of his means to church and humanitarian enterprises.
On June 25, 1849, Mr. Gray married Ploma M. Currier, who was born in Corinth. Penobscot County, Me., being a daughter of Ephraim and Hannah (Morrell) Currier. She bore him four children-George, Fred, Charles HI., and Har- riett G. The daughter is the wife of Benja- min B. Clay, of Boston. Mrs. Gray is weil known and highly esteemed in Gardiner. where she is now living at the age of eighty years.
GEORGE GRAY, who with his brother Charles. under the old firm name of Joshua Gray & Sons, carries on the business established by his father, was born in Gardiner, Me., Novem- ber 22, 1850. He was educated in the Gardi- ner schools, and has been identified with the lumber industry since his boyhood. Though several times solicited to accept public office. he has invariably declined, preferring to de- vote his whole attention to his large busi- ness interests. Like his father, he is a Repub- lican in politics. He is a member of the local lodge of Knights of Pythias. He married Frances S. Johnson, a daughter of the late B. F. Johnson, of Gardiner. They have one son, Frank L.
CHARLES H. GRAY, also a member of the firin of Joshua Gray & Sons, was born in Gardiner in 1858, and was educated in Gar- diner. Like his brother George, he belongs
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to the order of Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Board of High School Direc- tors, and has served in the City Council.
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EROY SUNDERLAND SANBORN, City Auditor of Portland, was born in Gor- ham, Me., April 5, 1850, a son of Dr. Jolm and Mary Jane (Beck) Sanborn. He traces his paternal ancestry seven generations back to John1 Sanborn, or Samborne, as the name was formerly spelled, born in England in 1620, who, with his two brothers, William and Ste- phen, came to America with their maternal grandfather, the Rev. Stephen Bachiler, in 1632. Their father, who had died a year or two before, is thought to have been William Samborne, of Brimpton, County Berks, Eng- land. Their mother, whose maiden name was Anne Bachiler, was a widow living in the Strand in June, 1631.
Lieutenant John1 Samborne was granted a house lot in Hampton, N.H., in 1640. He mar- ried Mary, daughter of Robert Tuck, of Gorlston, Suffolk, and Hampton, N.H. She died in 166S, and he afterward married Mrs. Margaret Moul- ton, the widow of William Moulton and daugh- ter of Robert Page, of Ormsby, Norfolk, Eng- land, and of Hampton, N.H. John Samborne served as Selectman for a number of terms and in other offices, including that of Representa- tive. . As Ensign of the Hampton company in 1677, he signed a petition to Major-general Denison, asking for help. He was commis- sioned Lieutenant of the Hampton forces, October 15, 1679. The line of descent from John1 Samborne to the subject of this sketch is through Richard,2 Ensign John,3 Benjamin,4 Joseph,5 Josedeck,6 Dr. John7 Sanborne, to Leroy S.8
Richard2 Sanborne, born in Hampton, N.II., January 4, 1655, was a freeman April 25, 1678. He resided in Hampton, and was a soklier in the garrison at Oyster River in 1696. He mar- ried first, in 1678, Ruth Moulton, daughter of William Moulton, of Hampton. She died May 3, 1685. For his second wife he married Mary Drake Boulter, daughter of Abraham Drake, of Hampton, and widow of Nathaniel Boulter, Jr., of Hampton.
Ensign John3 Sanborne, born November 6, 1681, in Hampton, bought a large tract of land in North Hill, afterward called North Hampton, and made of it a fine farm. He was a soldier from Hampton in 1708; a Sergeant in command of thirty-one men in Lovewell's War (1724); afterward an Ensign; a grantee and large land- holder in Chester, N.H .; a Selectman of Chester in 1724-26. He married August S, 1701, Sarah Philbrick, daughter of Lieutenant James Phil- brick, of Hampton. He died September 3, 1727.
Benjamin+ Sanborn, born in North Hampton. N.H., November 8, 1703, lived in Newmarket. He married Elizabeth Gilman, of Exeter, N.H., who was born October 3, 1707, and died Febru- ary 4, 1804. Joseph5 Sanborn, born January 14, 1738, at Newmarket, removed to Gorham, Me., where subsequently his death occurred. Ho married in 1771 Esther Tuttle. Josedeck6 Sanborn, the eldest of nine children of Joseph, was born September 10, 1773, in Gorham, Me., where he lived and died. He married in 1795 Martha March, by whom he had twelve children.
Dr. John Sanborn, born in Gorham, Me., June 30, 1806, was a physician, and praetised for many years in Gorham. He married in 1832 Mary Jane Beck, daughter of Thomas and Jane (Loring) Beck, of Deering, Me. Born in 1815, she died December 17, 1SS9. His death occurred February 28, 1854. They were the parents of eleven children, namely-Caro- line, John Jay, Jane, Martha M., Elizabeth F., Harriet B., Frederick C., John, Louisa C., Leroy Sunderland, and John T. G. Of these the sur- vivors are (July, 1903): Caroline, Martha, Elizabeth, Leroy S., and John T. G.
Leroy Sunderland Sanborn was educated in the public schools of Gorham, including the high school, from which he was graduated. Coming to Portland in 1869, he was employed for about a year as clerk in a grocery store: In 1870 he began service as letter-carrier, and in 1871 was appointed clerk in the post-office, in which position he remained until 1885. In 1889 he re-entered the service as postal clerk. and he was appointed in 1890 chief clerk in the railway mail service. In the following August he was appointed assistant postmaster of Port-
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land, and served in that capacity until 1896. Elected City Auditor March 11, 1896, he is now serving his sixth term in that office, his work having given general satisfaction to the citizens. In polities lie is a Republican, and has always been ready to make himself useful to his party. He has several times served as chief marshal of campaign parades, and was chief marshal of the notable parade on July 4, 1898, in which the Fifth Royal Scots Regiment of Montreal participated. A Royal Arch Mason, he also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, and to several other fraternal societies.
He married February 20, 1872, Miss Julia F. Hall, daughter of Captain William S. and Eme- line (Leighton) Hall. Mr. and Mrs. Sanborn have one child, Charles G., born April 21, 1874. He married Sarah B. Pratt, daughter of Aretas and Mary Kee Pratt, and has one child, Earle L., born February 24, 1899.
AMES II. BOWLER, who was promi- nently identified with the business in- terests of Bangor for many years, was a man of great earnestness and energy, and of unquestioned integrity. He was born in Jefferson, Me., April 23, 1814, and died in Bangor, Me., April 4, 1893. He was a son of the Rev. William Bowler, a Baptist minister, and 'came of English ancestors.
William O. Bowler, the paternal grandfather of James H. Bowler, came to America from England about the time of the Revolutionary War, and settled in Palmyra, in the district of Maine which was then included in Massachu- setts. On his arrival in this country he was wholly in sympathy with the British govern- ment. After living here awhile, his feelings underwent a rapid change. He became an ardent supporter of the cause of the liberty- loving Americans. He was well educated, and possessed considerable poetic ability. He was a pious, God-fearing man, and, in addition to preaching an occasional sermon, taught the meaning of true religion in his every-day life. He passed the deelining years of his life in what is now Illinois. He had a large family of children, all born in Palmyra, among them being several daughters. Four sons grew to
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